this is fox 5 news at ten. >> tonight, the shattered town of newtown, connecticut, says good-bye to more young victims of the elementary school shooting. >> in the wake of the tragedy, should people working at schools

carry firearms? virginia governor bob mcdon gnu weighs in for us and a national retailer yanks rifles. police are investigating a high school student after reports he made threatening comments. i'm shawn yancy. >> i'm will thomas in for brian. the people of newtown are continuing the agonizing task of laying to rest the victims. >> we're learning more about what happened in the moments following the attack. jennifer davis is in newtown with the latest. >> reporter: it does not feel like christmas is days away in newtown where the community buried two more 6-year-olds today and a man that lived near the school shared his memories helping students. christmas stockings carefully hung bearing the name of each

child. these women decking out a tree, a simple reminder of the season marred by funerals. james mattioli and jessica rekos. he didn't know why they were there but took them into his home hearing about the attack firsthand. >> this boy said we can't go back. we can't go back to the school. we can't go back. we don't have a teacher. >> reporter: rosen said some time later that day his joy of hosting these four girls and two boys turned to pain when a mother came looking for her child. >> she said is my son here? she said i heard six kids were here. i said no, he's not. but maybe he's at the fire house. i looked at the casualty list and her son was on it. >> reporter: and people continue flocking to newtown

where they shuffle through a growing memorial. candles and angel figure reaps greeting them. there are layers upon layers stacked high. some sopping wet. students who returned to school say they didn't get much work done but talked about the terrible events of last friday. in newtown, connecticut, jennifer davis, fox news. >> at least one major national retailer suspending the sale of rifles in the stores in the wake of the school shooting. a gun shop in virginia says sales have increased since the tragedy friday. john hanrahan has the latest. >> reporter: dick's sporting goods has temporarily suspended the sale of sporting rifles from its stores. the private equity group that owns the maker of bush master rifles is getting out of that business. since the school shootings on friday morning in connecticut, many people are buying guns. how much are sales up?

ballpark? >> 150%. >> reporter: sales here of all categories of firearms are up from handguns to assault type weapons. why? >> because they expect people are afraid of renewal of the assault weapons band and they're afraid they won't be able to get them and use them. >> reporter: the big city mayors have sent a letter to the president calling for a band on assault weapons and high capacity magazines and strengthening the current law on background checks. he's rethinking his previous pro nra position on gun control. >> when my daughters asked me friday night dad, you're in the senate. why can't we put reasonable restrictions on assault weapons or these rapid fire ammunition clips? i didn't have a good enough answer for them. >> reporter: virginia governor ordered a school safety audit. he was asked about allowing

school employees to be armed. >> i know there's been a knee jerk reaction against that. i think there should at least be a discussion of that. if people were armed, not just a police officer but other school officials at were trained and chose to have a weapon, certainly there would have been an opportunity to stop aggressors coming into the school. that's a reasonable discussion. >> reporter: since the shooting on friday, the national rifle association has been silent. late tuesday afternoon the four million member group released a statement. the members are shocked, saddened and heartbroken about the murders in connecticut. the gun rights group will offer meaningful contributions to make sure this never happens again. the nra scheduled a news conference on friday. john hanrahan, fox 5 news. new at ten tonight we are learning new details about a potentially dangerous incident

involving students close to home. police in maryland are investigating a serious threat allegedly made by a student. >> reporter: school officials and the city of laurel police are investigating what were threatening comments made last week and brought to the attention of school officials monday. likely they believe as a result of what happened in connecticut. this case involves a male student who attends laurel high school but not been in school for about a week. the situation coming to light monday about alleged threats made off campus last week. >> we had some students that were threatened and observed or had observations they were concerned about and brought it to e attention of a teacher. the teacher concurred with that observation and notified school security. school security notified police and an investigation began, which resulted in a young person

being committed to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation. >> reporter: laurel police department spokesman says investigators did find evidence in the student's locker. >> we had credible information, charts and diagrams and lists that concerned us. obviously the parents were consulted. information was brought to us that we believe that the student had access to weapons. so it was a very credible threat. >> reporter: he would not elaborate about those charts and diagrams and lists. >> we believe he was going to do harm to others and this was by shooting and killing and things of that nature. it's a pretty serious set of circumstances. >> reporter: prince george's county school officials are cooperating with laurel police. taking the situation seriously and will be sending a letter home with students after classes wednesday. >> maybe parents aren't paying attention.

i don't know. the signs have to be there. i would say so. >> reporter: we spoke to parents in laurel tonight. >> if you see or hear something like that, you need to report it. everything needs to be taken seriously today. >> police agree it was a good example of young part-time seeing something and saying something. the student in question is said to be hospitalized getting a mental health check up. >> montgomery county police are searching for a gunman who shot a man in the face today. it happened inside the north gate park on connecticut avenue in the aspen hill section of the county. the victim was a 21-year-old man and taken to a local hospital in critical condition. is unclear what prompted the shooting. police are asking anyone with information to give them a call. he's now jailed in fairfax county. here he is. johnny pimentel is suspected of

slashing more than ten women. investigators say he would stab women in their rear ends as they were shopping in stores across northern virginia. the charges include malicious wounding. we are following a news alert from washington. an independent panel investigating the attack on the u.s. cons land in libya says the state department is to blame. ambassador chris stevens and three others were killed in the september 11th attack. there were system attic failures at the state department no one ignored or violated their duties and the board did not recommend discipline. however the panel did recommendation changes to improve embassy security. tonight the u.s. is less than two weeks from the fiscal cliff and both sides are talking, there's still no deal. leaders in washington are trying to come up with a back up plan to avoid a financial fallout on new year's.

tom fitzgerald has the latest. >> reporter: with just 13 days left until the fiscal cliff hits, democrats and republicans are trying to outmaneuver each other. >> at the same time we'll continue to talk with the president. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner wants taxes to rise only on people making more than $1 million and said the president has to cut more spending. >> the white house offered yesterday was essentially a $1.3 trillion in new revenues for only $850 billion in net spending reductions. >> reporter: boehner says his back up plan would stop taxes that could hit the middle class. the white house so far is not biting. >> the president has come half way. he hopes the republicans will do the same. >> reporter: white house press secretary jay carney says the president has gone from $1.6 to $1.3 trillion in the new revenues he wants and republicans proposal's won't fly. >> so the proposal essentially

is to give another big tax cut to the wealthiest americans at a time we cannot afford it. >> reporter: what's not clear is if speaker john boehner to get republicans to go along with the $1 billion trillion. how confident are you he's speaking for the republicans? thomas man says he's faced revolts from his own party before and being careful not to move too fast. >> it's not as all clear to me that this proposal would attract republicans sufficient to carry in the full house. >> reporter: the bottom line on both sides remains unchanged, though. reach a deal in the next 13 days or taxes on everyone go up new year's day. his aids say speaker boehner is committed to a comprehensive by

partisan approach. the problem is the white house and house republicans are still hundreds of billions of dollars away from each other's proposal. in the news room, tom fitzgerald, fox 5 news. >> tonight a fox 5 investigation. a local toddler dies during a visit with his father. police are still investigating what happened and now the case sparked questions about two other deaths in the past decade. we'll tell you why coming up. i enjoy kids and i want other kids to experience what i've experienced as a kid. >> a local teenager makes a heartwarming decision. how she's helping families out this holiday season. coming up, the hunt is on in northern virginia for this man. what he's accused of doing to a teenage girl in her home. tonight at 11. 

a toddler ends up dead while visiting his father. now that case has prompted questions about two more deaths

in the past decade. tonight the child's mother is speaking exclusively to fox 5 about her son's tragic death and who sh believes is responsible. sherry lee has our investigation. >> reporter: this is prince mcleod rams, just 15 months old. in october his mother dropped him off at his father's house. >> i remember kissing him on the forehead and telling him i'd see him later and i never saw him alive again. >> reporter: within hours he was dead. pulled off life support at a nova fairfax hospital. >> all i know is i was told when they found him he had been down too long and he was brain dead. >> reporter: the cause of death is under investigation by city police. mcleod says she believes her exfiance had something to do with it. >> what i do know is that people around this man die and it keeps

happening. >> reporter: as part of the investigation into the toddler's death it's prompted police to look closely at the deaths of two people close to the father. his mother who prince william county police ruled committed suicide in 2008 and his exgiver friend, 22-year-old shawn mason. she was found murder in her condo. the two also had a son who is now 13. at the time, police told fox 5 they didn't have the evidence they needed or a suspect. >> well, it is frustrating not having the weapon. not being able to come to a closure and most of all, i know it's painful for the family. >> reporter: in march during a heated custody battle over prince court documents provided by mcleod show the same detective testified rams was a person of interest in mason's murder and circumstances that point to him a being a suspect in that murder and mr. rams

could be charged at any time. rams has never been charged in any of the three deaths. he did not answer calls to a cell phone number given to us and hi attorneys didn't return our calls either. what mcleod can't understand is someone who is a person of interest in a murder could get unsupervised visits with a child. >> i know my son was a healthy little boy. i was chasing him around the grocery store that morning and turned up dead. >> reporter: montgomery county judge dismissed mcleod's plea to prevent unsupervised visits given the suspicious circumstances of the murder of ram's ex-girlfriend. according to transports the judge said i don't know anything about the had had investigation. i know one thing. if there's evidence you charge it and prosecute it. if there's not, you don't. that's how it stands before me. mcleod believes the judge was wrong. >> there were so many points of failure in this situation and i

think that when it comes down to it, there's going to be lots of finger pointing. >> reporter: right now the investigation into prince's death remains open. there are no new significant developments. we anticipate more information once the medical report is complete. this case is being worked with -- >> i won't believe anything other than foul play. i read him his book for the last time and i looked at him and said prips, i promise. i promise i'll get justice. i promise. i'm not going to stop fighting for you. >> reporter: sherry lee fox 5 news. >> we contacted judge algio but can't comment on active cases. prince county police say we're aware of the case and our detectives were contacted in regards to that case, but it has not reopened the case into the

mother's suicide unless new information comes in. take it outside tonight. the temperatures have certainly dropped out there and the winds have picked up. let's check in to see what we can expect overnight. >> we're back to the cold stuff. this after a warm day today. we got up to 62 degrees and a blustery day as well. the winds are getting better. they're lightning up but as a result we're finding our temperatures dropping. we're down to 46 degrees in the district. there are spots in the upper 30s including cull pepper at 37. winchester down to 39. we'll continue to see the temperatures drop and see a lot more cold air up to the north and west beyond that. look for temperatures to drop to the low 30s and a couple of you could get in the upper 20s tonight. those wind gusts are better. the peak gusts were at 35 and still a gust of 21. the winds will be better in the

morning. might still be a breeze from time to time tomorrow. we expect to see cloud cover moving through overnight. weak disturbance to the north, which will not bring precipitation is going to spread a few clouds on here. here is your forecast for tonight. it will be colder and some clouds around and probably drop to 28 to 32 in the suburbs. get ready for a cold start in the morning. the district about 38. winter storm watches have been posted for the mountains. i'll let you know what's going on with that when i join you with the full forecast. >> maybe someone will have a white christmas. why a former miss usa contestant owes the organization $5 million. later tonight it's been seven years to the day since a virginia mother was found dead in her burning house. now new clues could help police catch her killer. the unravelling murder mystery still ahead tonight. ♪

[ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing.

metro's legal claims have jumped because of the deadly 2009 crash. according to the washington examiner, metro paid out $173 million in legal claims in the past five years. the transit agency annual payments averaged around $30 million in 2008 and 2011. payments row to there are 48.5 million. the examiner reports settlement crash that killed nine people will stretch into the current fiscal year. the justice department won't be charging the former cia's mistress with cyber stalking. the pentagon is still investigating to see if broad well mishandled classify information. a former misusa contestant has been ordered to pay $5

million for defamation. miss pennsylvania usa made some excepts about the beauty comments that were false, harmful and malicious. the pageant was rigged and the top 5 finalists were picked beforehand and before the show aired on tv. apparently just not true. >> it is a murder mystery gone unsolved for a decade. what police want you to know, up next. 

>> this is fox 5 news at ten. >> we are learning but details about the first mother of 3 back in 2005. investigators took another look at the evidence. tonight paul wagner has more on what they found. >> reporter: on december 18, 2005, sherry warner was alone inside her home outside of cull pepper when her dad called to talk about the redskins. it was around 6:30 p.m. and the home team had just beaten the cowboys. >> first word were pop, can you believe that game? i said no, i can't. we talked a little bit about the game and i heard a knock. there was a knock on the door. >> reporter: john overheard a man telling sherry his car had broken down and could he use the phone to call for help? it was the last time they would talk.

she had been bound, shot and left hanging in a burning basement. >> she would help anyone and could have been her down falling. she apparently opened the door to help someone in need and that was the last we heard from her. she would have done anything for anyone. >> reporter: a man named ricky gray a convicted killer was indicted for the murder, but the charges were dropped when evidence appeared to clear him. now the sheriff's office thinks newly tested forensic evidence may hold the key. >> we assigned new detectives in january of this year. they specialized in working on just this cold case. after a lot of time dedicated to the investigation we are fortunate at this point that we've come to a new key piece of evidence and based on this new scientific evidence it will allow us to likely identify the person or a person or persons that were at the scene. >> reporter: a law enforcement

source familiar with the investigation says the evidence is dna. >> sherry was not only missed but very much loved by everybody. you'll have to excuse me. but i miss my baby. >> reporter: john says after all this time he's hopeful the investigation is finally on the right path. >> it's very refreshing that they're working on it so diligently. and we're all in hopes that something will come of this. >> reporter: investigators believe there was a second person at the scene of the crime that night. that the killer wasn't alone. so this morning this open letter 's from the sheriff and the investigators. it's asking that second person to step forward. the portion of the letter it says remove this burden and fear from your conscious and mind and

step forward. point to the person who actually carried out this murder. you can see the entire letter at www.myfoxdc.com. in the fox 5 news room, paul wagner. >> the search is on for two men who shot and killed a man in the aspen hills section of montgomery county. edwin was walking to his apartment early sunday morning when they approached. they demanded money and shot him. this is the fifth murder in the county this month. police say this murder appears to be random. now to a news alert. the last dc council meeting of the year came to an end and it was a marathon session that went on for about ten hours. what a year for the council and you might agree a shameful year full of drama. our political analyst is here with us. mark, the council voted to reduce speed camera fines and

hire more cops. sounds good but now the mayor may have a problem paying for the cops. >> reporter: that's right. the mayor is conscious of the budget and very conscious of protecting the financial status of the city. he also doesn't want to pay for extended library hours that jack evans the council member got to open libraries on sunday and also to extend hours on the weekdays. that's the fiscal pack and forth that goes on between the legislative body and executive. >> with regard to the cops could be a surplus issue. more on that to come i'm sure. so let's talk in broad terms now, mark. what did the council do right this year? >> reporter: well, they take credit for reforming the taxi cab system that some people like. it's been instituted. living social, the large company that was doing very well. not doing so well recently they gave tax breaks.

i talked to council member in ward 3 that said they made real advances in terms of green legislation and being sensitive to the environment. there's one major disapointment that affects everything and that's campaign finance reform. that went nowhere and council members who don't want to be identified by name said the problem really was the council chair of that committee who had jurisdiction and that somebody who has mayoral aspirations, the ward 4 council member. >> if mayor gray were to leave office, who might run? >> reporter: let's throw out the names. jack evans. he's run before and didn't do very well. murial browser, tommy wells, the ward 6 council member is definitely somebody who all but has said would run.

the point is we still have this cloud over whether the mayor will remain in office. he hasn't been charged and we now know the investigation, which we thought would wrap up. it's been almost two years very well might go into next summer. >> certainly some black eyes in deed including the departures of harry thomas jr. and kwame brown. our time goes by fast. we'll see you shortly. i'm sure. coming up next an nbc reporter and crew making a daring escape after being kidnapped in syria. the redskins can lock in a playoff spot as soon as this weekend. we'll tell you how it could happen coming up.  [ femamale announcer ] here's to a whole world

of happier holidays. time to enchant, delight and amaze. safeway will help you gather everyone round. a smoked, shank half ham is only 99 cents a pound. get breyer's ice cream for $2.48 and dessert will surely shine. make it a grand finale with starbucks just $6.99. turns out this season less is really so much more. so make your holiday merrier than ever before. safeway. ingredients for life.

nbc news correspondent richard engel and his crew are free tonight after kidnapped in syria. they were abducted last thursday. they were blindfolded and moved around to different safe houses. yesterday they drove to a check point manned by rebel fighters. the gun battle broke out and two of the kidnappers were killed. engel and his crew were not hurt. the rebels drove them into turkey where they were set free. thieves sunk to a new low stealing care packages. two dozen boxes were stolen from a sacramento warehouse. the group move america forward collected items like coffee, jelly beans, deodorant. the items were ready to ship but thieves got to them first.

>> it's really sad someone would take this from the troops. i hope whoever took them won't be a grinch and take them to the post office. >> move forward america is scrambling to send more packages. coming up tonight on news edge at 11, a teenager at home in the middle of a day attacked after a man knocks on the door claiming to be a cable guy. it was all about wrapping up business before the end of the year. what council members decided on issues like speed cameras and the so-called tax on your water bill. we'll continue right after this. hey, look! a shooting star!

make a wish! i wish we could lie here forever. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. [ male announcer ] it's practically yours. test drive! but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back.

and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get $0 down, $0 due at signing, $0 deposit, and $0 first month's payment on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com today. there's a health company that can help you stay that way. what's healthier than that?

christmas a week away. a teenager told her relatives she doesn't want anything. she wants them to buy gifts for

abused children. >> reporter: there was a gift wrapping party at st. shores, the d.c. children's center. >> i like making pretty lights. >> reporter: they do it every year. this volunteer from last year found the spirit of giving contagious. >> it was one of those seasons we were i didn't want to do christmas at all. all of a sudden we came and we wrapped presents and the next day we went and got a tree. >> what we do at safe shore is serve children whose lives have been touched by violence in some way. >> reporter: this year attendance was great. lots of volunteers brought gifts and helped wrapped. including 14-year-old megan who came up with a novel holiday gift giving plan. >> i thought it would be a great idea to give back to the community and donate gifts

instead. >> reporter: you don't want anything? >> nope. >> reporter: not one thing? megan, a tenth grader says she wasn't sure at first which children she wanted to help. her mom suggested the safe shores nonprofit and they gave her a wish list. >> i received a wish list for also what i thought was really funny. a 14-year-old girl. i thought it would be like getting a gift for me rfrnlts some lucky girl will be getting a kindle fire. >> i enjoy kids and i want other kids to enjoy what i experienced as a kid. >> reporter: her father is proud. >> it affirms the value we've tried to instill in the kids and the values of the educational expierces they've had. >> reporter: her brother thinks it's kill. >> it's nice what she's doing for the shelter. it's kind of inspired me maybe next year i can do something

like this and sponsor another kid. >> reporter: the gifts will be given to social workers and police detectives to be distributed to young victims of abuse. >> giving back is just something that is really important. >> reporter: karen gray houston, fox 5 news. >> she has an incredible heart. another heartwarming story. a group of capital one bank members and heart of america staffers joins forces to build a library. they called it redesign. they put a reading corner in at the shelter. it's a place for parents and children to use and engage in a safe environment. we're talking about toys and helping others. it's time we talk about a potential christmas forecast. >> yeah. i think it's going to be colder but right now it doesn't look like a white christmas here. some parts of the country it's going to be and as close by as

western maryland. >> a lot can change. >> yeah and it's getting active and colder toward the end of the week. we see several big storms in the pipeline and talk more about the trends. tonight the trend is to see the wind we've had a our constant come pan your for the afternoon and evening starting to get lighter and it was a nice day. we did get up to 62 degrees but the wind made it feel cooler. checking out the high temperatures i wanted to show you we're all over the place. 62 degrees here, but chicago is 40. wilmington 66. dallas was 80 and down to dell rio you find 85. here's the colder air coming in. 28 for fargo. 21 for international falls. when you've got an 80 and a 28 on the map you have a set up for a big storm to form and we saw that process begin tonight toward the colorado rockies and they'll be a potent storm that starts to feed on the heat and the contrast in temperatures we

see on the map. that storm will bring us rain on thursday. for wednesday no, it's not 62 but wednesday is looking like a nice day here ch lots of sunshine and 54 degrees is above average for this time. mid-40s would be more typical. that's a bonus day. most of thursday will be dry. the rain we get from that system that will be developing will hold off until after dark for most areas. as that system is moving in our direction we have another fairly mild day at 52 degrees. beyond those two days, though, the trend is for it to get colder. back in the 40s and maybe lower 40s at that. we'll show you that extended forecast in a moment. meanwhile we're getting chillier now. certainly not bitter cold and many colder nights than this. the district is down to 40. leonard town to 43, stephensville 45 and as the wind lightens up we believe the temperatures will continue to drop. it is getting better.

most places not picking up a gust. the district is still getting a gust at 21. gaithersburg to 22. winds will drop to the west at 10 to 15 miles per hour and perhaps a little deck of clouds coming through later tonight as you can see a disturbance bringing rain showers. not expecting any rain to get in here or anything else for that matter. a little bit of cloud cover may move through. perhaps we don't get quite that cold. where we have clear spots we drop to 28 to 32. 38 as the winds lighten up. tomorrow sunny skies, not a windy day. perhaps a little breeze from time to time but not bad. our temperature at 54 looks like it will feel terrific. now that colder trend not in the cards for tomorrow. it will be in there after we get through thursday and into friday. 41 at 8 in the morning here tomorrow. by 4:00 52 degrees.

on friday only about 46 degrees with a pretty good windchill and quite blustery conditions. saturday still dry, but 44. so that's actually below normal now for december and you know what, we're looking at sunday christmas eve and christmas day in the 40s and dry. i'm going to show you the winter storm watch up for thursday night and friday for the mountains. they're going to get significant snow at least 6 inches. maybe some blizzard conditions. if you're traveling this weekend tune in and i'll let you know who is under that. >> the redskins, they are on a roll. they've won five in a row to get in the playoff mix. scott smith is with us now. what's it going to take scott to clinch a spot in the post season? >> i'm glad you asked. believe it or not they have a chance to seal up their first playoff berth in five years this weekend. several things need to go their way. they need to beat the philadelphia eagles. then they need the giants, bears and vikings to all go down.

which may sound like a long shot. so is a five game win streak. everything seems to be going the skin's way recently. their stock is rapidly rising. espn has them eighth in the power rankings up four spots from a week ago. mike shanahan knew this moment would come with a little bit of patience. >> i understood we were going to struggle the first couple years. we didn't have a football team and it was getting the right guys on the football team where we felt like we could make a run. one of the reasons i told our football team at the beginning of the year that you guys don't know it but you're better than you think you are. they've obviously are proving that now. they believe in each other. every game we believe we'll win. once you start winning the close games you expect it. >> now if the winning scenario doesn't play out this week, it will probably come down to the final week of the season in a

home date against the dallas cowboys on december 30th. so buckle up for the next two weeks. >> buckle up and got to get tickets for that game if it should occur. speaking of tickets an iowa couple who won the power ball jackpot is donating millions to their high school. brian and mary louse won $202 million in september and want to give $3 million with a catch. the stadium visitors locker room must be painted pink. the school reportedly accepted the donation. a local power ball winner stepped forward to claim his prize. he won $1 million in the record drawing earlier. he bought hi ticket in wood bridge and showed up there to claim his prize today. he and his wife still can't believe they won. >> it was a great, great thing. it was fantastic. i never felt so good in my life. i was very happy and my wife and

i can share this thing together and life has been good. >> he matched the first five numbers to win him $1 million. virginia had six other million dollar tickets drawn. >> still can't get over a pink locker room. >> intimidate the other team. >> there you go. the three remaining x factor finalists are a few performances away from a $5 million recording contract. coming up next here on the ten they open up about the growing pressure. you know it's national tv. got to be huge pressure. what would be their first purchase if they win all that dough? this one had a lot of people talking. instagram policy changes. they're pulling a 180. the details next. [ male announcer ] there are plenty of reasons to be jolly at the chevy year-end event because chevy's giving more. more efficiency with sonic and cruze... more function in equinox and traverse...

more dependability with the legendary silverado... and more style in the all-new malibu. chevy's giving more at the year-end event because 'tis the season. chevy's giving more. this holiday season, get a 2013 cruze ls for around $149 per month or get $500 holiday bonus cash.

it is crunch time on the x factor. we're down to the final three contestants and voters, you will pick a winner this week. we spoke with the contestants about how winning the competition would change their lives. . >> reporter: when america chooses the winner of the second season of the x factor thursday night the artist's life will be changed forever after picking up a $5 million recording contract. >> i can't really process it. it sounds great. i'd love that. >> it's literally right there. >> i try not to think about it. it is getting to that point where it's so tangible. >> reporter: the finalists tate stevens, the all girl teen group fifth harmony and 13-year-old carly rose have all matured as singers and performers. >> i'm learning to deal with

things differently. when i first came on the show, emotion was tough for me to be able to hold back. >> i think i've become more professional. i'm used to stages not like this. >> compared to the beginning, we have changed so much. especially from our first live show performance to now, we have grown and improved so much. >> reporter: figuring out what to do with all that money might be their easiest decision. >> it would be a little bite to eat, then family and then charity and then savings and a little bit for us. >> i'm going to buy a new harley and then i'm going to let my wife do whatever she wants to do. >> that's what shawn would do. i'm sure of it. the news keeps coming tonight. shawn yancy has